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`Stone bread'
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Biscuits have been around for hundreds of years
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The word biscuit comes from the French bis (twice) and cuit (cooked), and originally referred to a flat cake that was baked again after being removed from its pack.
Biscuits may seem like a modern snack but they've been around for hundreds of years. European ships carried biscuits by the tonne in their cargo holds because they kept well on long voyages.
"An army marches on its stomach" goes a saying: soldiers often had biscuits as meal rations. French soldiers in Louis IV's time called these biscuits "stone bread", probably their way of expressing a wish for gourmet meals at all times, even in the middle of a war. Later, biscuits made with meat juices as liquid caught on because people thought they were nutritious.
Modern biscuits incorporate pretty much anything, except chopped liver-nuts, raisins, chocolate, fruit and so on, and biscuits are among the most popular snacks in the world.
Eating biscuits made with very little sugar, after dipping them in gravy, is a common practice in many parts of the United States. The British left us with the taste for tea-and-biscuits; walk into any café and you will find customers sipping tea over a plate of biscuits. The fluffier and lighter the biscuit, the richer it is in fat. But even hard biscuits contain a lot of fat in the form of hydrogenated vegetable oils, and these oils can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Even sweet biscuits tend to have some salt in them, and this can increase the blood pressure of hypertension patients. Restrict biscuit consumption if your doctor has put you on a low salt diet for hypertension.
Biscuits are nutritious as an occasional snack, but too many people eat them daily, especially with tea. The sugar in biscuits tends to stick to the teeth, especially if you try to wash it down with tea that may already have sugar in it. This is why biscuit lovers are so likely to have dental caries.
RAJIV.M
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